Library:How to Make the World Add Up
| How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tim Harford |
| First published | 2020 |
| ISBN | — |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Science & Space News Media & Journalism |
| Tactics | Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers is a 2020 book by Tim Harford.
Summary
Tim Harford, an economist, Financial Times columnist and presenter of the BBC radio program More or Less, offers ten rules for making sense of statistics. The book was published in the United States in 2021 as The Data Detective.
Harford argues that statistics, used well, are one of the best tools we have for understanding the world, and that the answer to misleading numbers is not cynicism but curiosity.
Key points
- Check your feelings. The first rule is to notice your emotional reaction to a claim, since motivated reasoning shapes what we accept.
- Step back. Ask what is being measured, how the data were collected and what is missing.
- The story of Abraham Bredius. Harford tells how an art expert was fooled by Han van Meegeren's Vermeer forgeries because he wanted them to be real.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
The book is a practical guide to the questions that expose Statistical and Evidentiary Distortion. Its emphasis on curiosity over cynicism matches Bullshitopedia's approach.